aps, and the round
apples in the trees of the enclosures seemed to be flowering, covered
with white as they had been in the pleasant month of their blossoming.

This day the big clouds to the north, the big great snow clouds, had
disappeared and the blue sky showed itself above the white earth on which
the rising sun cast silvery reflections.

Cesaire looked straight before him through the window, thinking of
nothing, quite happy.

The door opened, two women entered, peasant women in their Sunday
clothes, the aunt and the cousin of the bridegroom; then three men, his
cousins; then a woman who was a neighbor. They sat down on chairs and
remained, motionless and silent, the women on one side of the kitchen,
the men on the other, suddenly seized with timidity, with that
embarrassed sadness which takes possession of people assembled for a
ceremony. One of the cousins soon asked:

"Is it not the hour?"

Cesaire replied:

"I am much afraid it is."

"Come on! Let us start," said another.

Those rose up. Then Cesaire, whom a feeling of uneasiness had taken
possession of, climbed up the ladder of the loft to see whether his
father was ready. The old man, always as a rule an early riser, had not
yet made his appearance. His son found him on his bed of straw, wrapped
up in his blanket, with his eyes open and a malicious gleam in them.

He bawled into his ear: "Come, daddy, get up. It's time for the wedding."

The deaf man murmured-in a doleful tone:

"I can't get up. I have a sort of chill over me that freezes my back. I
can't stir."

The young man, dumbfounded, stared at him, guessing that this was a
dodge.

"Come, daddy; you must make an effort."

"I can't do it."

"Look here! I'll help you."

And he stooped toward the old man, pulled off his blanket, caught him by
the arm and lifted him up. But old Amable began to whine, "Ooh! ooh! ooh!
What suffering! Ooh! I can't. My back is stiffened up. The cold wind must
have rushed in through this cursed roof."

"Well, you'll get no dinner, as I'm having a spread at Polyte's inn. This
will teach you what comes of acting mulishly."

And he hurried down the ladder and started out, accompanied by his
relatives and guests.

The men had turned up the bottoms of their trousers so as not to get them
wet in the snow. The women held up their petticoats and showed their lean
ankles with gray woollen stockings and their bony shanks resembling
broomsticks. And they all moved